


Defense, The

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s04e04 The Red Mass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-04-26
Updated: 2003-04-26
Packaged: 2019-05-31 03:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15111230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Plato, Shareef, and proportional responses.





	Defense, The

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**The Defense**  
**by:** Kasey

**Character(s):** Leo  
**Category(s):** POST-EP: The Red Mass  
**Rating:** TEEN  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own them. Please don't sue.  
**Summary:** Plato, Shareef, and proportional responses.  


How did I not see it coming? 

The plane's missing - that's almost hard to believe. I'm not an amateur at this, how did I not see it coming? 

A plane goes down, no one can find it. Next thing we know, a message comes through Qumar or Syria or Lebanon saying he's alive and well in...Canada or something. Cuba. 

So then we retaliate by...bombing a military base in Qumar because once you take the plane of someone who wasn't involved, that's a proportional response. 

Meaning then they have reason to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge. Or the Statue of Liberty. 

Then we don't need to worry about making a case to the American people about why we're against Qumar. By then the evidence of their wrongdoing will be piled high to the ceiling. 

Piled almost as high as ours. 

I convinced the President on Shareef, and I had no qualms about it. Maybe it's the old warrior in me, but it was what needed done. The job of the government must be, first and foremost, to protect its people otherwise we're no better than any of the weak governments we criticize. Our national security can't be abstract, it can't be used to mean assets or interests or advancing our democracy. 

It has to be keeping our people safe. 

It's hard enough to do within our country - we can't keep pipe bombs from going off. But we can catch the enemies. The FBI can raid the house and get the bad guys and save the kids. 

Seldom do we have have the opportunity to stop foreign terrorism before it happens. And I'm not thrilled about the practice as a whole - killing foreign leaders because we don't like them? How the hell do we expect other countries not to take up the practice and start tryin' to kill our guys? 

But I found the enemy I could kill. 

And so did they. They found someone they could kill to hurt us and put on a show for their country. 

I should've seen it coming. 

There'll be apologies somewhere along the line. We're sorry for killing your leader, you're sorry for killing an innocent leader, and we'll go about our business. But somehow I think the apologies would end up about like Plato's Apology - not an apology at all, rather a mistranslation. Socrates basically told off the jury - that was no apology. 

It was a justification for his doing what others might see as being wrong. He did what he had to do. 

And so did we. 

~*~FIN~*~ 


End file.
